Microsoft SQL Server 2008 no longer allows you to truncate the transaction log using the no_log syntax. Essentially, Microsoft decided (arguably correctly) that too many people were “abusing” the statement and doing harm to themselves.

But when your logfiles have grown too large because you are not backing them up often enough, you can use the following code to accomplish the same results as “with no_log”. If you don’t understand why Microsoft deprecated the “with no_log”, you should probably do more digging before you use anything posted here.

The Code

USE MASTER
GO
ALTER DATABASE database_name SET RECOVERY SIMPLE
GO
USE database_name
GO
DBCC SHRINKFILE (database_name_log, 1)
GO
ALTER DATABASE database_name SET RECOVERY FULL
GO

SQL 2008 returns a table of shrinkfile related results plus the following confirmation:

(1 row(s) affected)
DBCC execution completed. If DBCC printed error 
messages, contact your system administrator.

Use the following code snippits to identify and rename logical file names in Microsoft SQL Server.

Determine the logical file names

USE [database_name]
GO
sp_helpfile
GO

Rename logical file names

USE master
GO
ALTER DATABASE database_name
MODIFY FILE  ( NAME = 'current_logical_name', 
NEWNAME = 'new_logical_name')
GO

SQL 2008 returns the following confirmation:

The file name 'new_logical_name' has been set.

After restoring a database from a remote server backup, the “Login name” is often disassociated.

The Solution

USE [database_name];
GO
EXEC sp_change_users_login 'Auto_Fix', 'Username';
GO

SQL should respond with the following:

The row for user 'Username' will be fixed by updating its login link to a login
already in existence.
The number of orphaned users fixed by updating users was 1.
The number of orphaned users fixed by adding new logins and then updating users was 0.

For more info:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174378.aspx

Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005, when you read xml data using FOR OPENXML, whitespace characters are replaced with a single space. After digging through the internet for half an hour, I found a couple options.

The Problem

If you take the following Xml,

<Root>
    <Node value="Line1&#xA;Line2&#xA;Line3&#xA;" />
</Root>

and run it through a FOR OPENXML query

DECLARE 
    @strXML nvarchar(MAX), 
    @hDoc int 

SET @strXML = N'<Root><Node value="Line1&#xA;Line2&#xA;Line3&#xA;" /></Root>'

exec sp_xml_preparedocument @hDoc output, @strXML

SELECT Node FROM OPENXML(@hDoc, '/Root') WITH (Node xml 'Node')

exec sp_xml_removedocument @hDoc

SQL strips/replaces the whitespace characters, leaving you with the following:

<Node value="Line1 Line2 Line3 " />

The Options

One option is to use the nodes() functionality. It is a complete alternative to using FOR OPENXML, introduced in SQL 2005. A couple of things deterred me from using this approach. Although performance is not going to be an issue for me, there seemed to be a number of related complaints. Further, I didn’t want to rewrite a significant portion of my codebase if it wasn’t necessary.

Instead, i simply pulled my data out of an xml attribute (i found no way to prevent FOR OPENXML from rewriting attribute whitepace) and stuck it in a CDATA.

SET @strXML = N'<Root><Node><![CDATA[
Line1
Line2
Line3
]]></Node></Root>'

Results:

<Node>
Line1
Line2
Line3
</Node>